[Arthdal Chronicles] Fight for freedom

Chapter 40: Friendship and love.

Yangcha had not put his mask back on his face to cross the city. It was dark, late and there was no one on the streets they were taking. Enoria hadn't commented on that, even though he knew she was quite surprised that he allowed himself to be out without it, he who almost always felt uncomfortable when his face wasn't covered. 

She didn't have to ask where he was leading her. Once they had reached the forest, she recognized the path they were taking: their wooden house. She looked at their interlocked fingers. They had chosen to fight together. He wouldn't let go of her hand and she wouldn't let go of his. If their deadly fate was unavoidable, she would love him every day like she was going to lose him the day after. She slightly squeezed the hand she was holding. She wanted to embrace him with all the love she had for him. She wanted him closer, as close as one could be. 

He felt her gaze on him. As much as he liked when she devoured him with her eyes, he also knew that she was not paying that much attention to her feet and that it would probably show soon enough. It was not a problem. He was ready to prevent her from falling if she was to stumble. It didn't miss to happen and he had to ask her to focus on her feet rather than on him, making them both laugh.

She had thought they would just rest but it wasn't Yangcha's plan. He asked her to wait for him outside, disappeared for a short moment in the house then came back with practise swords. They would rest but at the moment he wanted her to let go of the bad emotions she had locked up inside her for weeks and for that, there was nothing better than a good training session.

Under the rain that had started to fall, she fought with strength but because her body was not as its best he could feel that she tired more easily than usual. She moved with speed, blocked every attack he launched on her and launched some powerful ones herself and with every strike, she let go of the emotions she had tried to control for weeks. Her only mistake was probably to let it show. In a real fight, it would give her opponents an advantage. When he thought she was too tired to continue, he sped up the game. A first strike made her step back, another one destabilized her, a precise blow on her wrist made her drop her practice sword and drop on one knee. The fight ended there.

At least that was what he thought.

Her eyes turned purple, she grabbed his sword before it reached her neck, pushed it away while, with her free hand, she took the dagger on her ankle, stood up, spined around and put it on his neck.

"I won," she said, out of breath as her eyes went back to their dark color.

She had. She had been too fast for him to do something. Her training with Tagon was paying off. Though it could be dangerous on the battlefield for her to let her purple eyes glow, she wouldn't have the choice. Letting people know what she was was still a better option than letting two Neanthals kill her. In silence, he stared into her eyes for a moment. She was beautiful, even with messy hair or drops of rain falling all over her face. With a quick move, she dropped her dagger on the ground, grabbed his chains, pulled him towards her and captured his lips with hers. He didn't resist, dropped his own practice sword, grabbed her waist with one hand, reached into her neck with the other and kissed her back with the same intensity.

-----------------------------------------------------------

It was still quite dark when Yangcha woke up. Enoria was still asleep, snuggled against him. He liked having her that close and he still couldn't believe that the evening before she almost took the decision to put an end to what they had.

He wasn't scared of a lot of things. He was known to be calm, unbothered in most of the situations but the idea he may lose her scared him. Their future was uncertain. They could both die, they could both live or only one of them could survive. He had promised her he would keep on living if he was the only one to make it but could he? He didn't want to know what a life without her would be. They both had to live. He too had to become stronger and he told himself that he could maybe also participate in her training with Tagon since he had always fought against her but never with her. But even if they united their strength to fight together, it probably wouldn't be enough against the two Neanthals who would want them dead. They would need help but they wouldn't be able to count on Enoria's people. It was a war between the Agos and Arthdal. People belonging to neither of those sides could get killed by both, Agos or Arthdal warriors. Would they be able to count on the Daekans? Probably not. They wouldn't be the one targeted, he doubted they would voluntarily face two Neanthals to save Enoria's life or his. If they could only count on themselves then it would be a difficult fight. One for which they would have to be well prepared in order not to lose it.